The nets are announcing their fall schedules this week, and although we still don’t know for sure about VERONICA MARS (although it looks bad), we do know that HEROES is the show everyone is imitating, and it even get s a six episode spin-off mini-series, just like in the comics.

Perhaps the biggest news from NBC was the announcement that it would, in effect, spin off “Heroes” into a second series called “Heroes: Origins,” a limited-run, six-episode drama that will introduce a new character each week and incorporate an online element that will allow “Heroes” fans to vote on which of the six new characters on “Origins” will be added to the original series. As a breakout freshman hit, “Heroes” has reshaped NBC’s thinking in several ways. By increasing the number of episodes to 24 this season, and adding six episodes of “Heroes: Origins” to the schedule next year, NBC gets 30 total episodes and makes a significant attempt to keep viewers from scattering during the inevitable rerun period. (“Origins” will air on Monday nights when “Heroes” takes a break.)

THE BIONIC WOMAN is also coming back but frankly, we were much more excited to hear that there will be a US edition of The IT Crowd:

David Guarascio and Moses Port (Joe’s brother) will serve as executive producers on The IT Crowd. The original British series centers on three IT workers who are generally despised by the rest of the workers at Reynholm Industries in London and yet are crucial to keeping the company running smoothly. The Channel 4 series was quite a success across the pond, so naturally NBC wants to try and duplicate that success here.

The hopeful news is that Richard Ayoade will reprise his role as Moss in the US version. (We’ve been fans since GARTH MARENGHI”s DARKPLACE.) Of course it won’t be as funny as the UK one, but we’re sure Ayoade’s Asperger’s-impaired IT guy will strike a chord with anyone who has ever struggled to find the new archives for their Outlook.

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The IT Crowd wasn’t exactly a roaring success here in blighty! It’s very funny, and a second series has thankfully been commissioned for 2007, but for some inexplicable reason it never caught fire with a mass audience.

THE IT CROWD, in its original version, is funny intermittently, but often feels like it’s trying too hard. I have great difficulty imagining it as a full-season, 22-episode, American primetime network sitcom, unless they’re going to take the shell of the concept and very little else. Frankly, I can’t imagine the BBC or ITV running it in primetime in its original form – it was a Friday night sitcom on the vaguely-alternative Channel4 – so if NBC are actually going to do something that closely resembles the original, I’ll be very surprised.

The IT Crowd is one of the best things ever made by human hands. I love the IT Crowd and I love every single character and every actors’ performance on this show — and Richard Ayoade is a genius — but without Graham Linehan writing I can’t imagine it being anywhere near as good. Time to get an all region DVD player.

Smart planning on Heroes. NBC keeps the ratings from slumping, they get to sell a separate DVD, and if done right, they can franchise the series Law & Order/CSI style.
And then… you film three movies backtoback and have a big crossover event like Secret Wars with the movies being released one month apart! Which then feeds into the Fall season!

Oh, and in this day in age, a series does not have to be widely popular, just profitable. Look at Arrested Development. The writing and acting got Emmy noms, The Emmys got it noticed, which drove sales of the DVDs, and word of mouth continues to drive sales.
If the demographics are right, them ads can be sold which target a particular group, much like a specialty magazine like Guns And Ammo or Martha Stewart Living.
And a show about techheads? geez… I bet there are websites already being coded in anticipation of this series!

May I just be a domestic dork for a moment and say how jazzed I am about this HEROES: ORIGINS miniseries? I’ve been living for Monday nights, and I was dreading the need to get a life this summer.

Now if NBC is reeeally smart, they’ll find a way of cross-pollinating with WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO, on cable sister station SCIFI. Of course, HEROES seems to be all about dissecting the superhero archetype, whereas WW2BASH is all about building it back up again. I must away to my mountainside aerie to ponder this matter.

Richard Ayoade is a comedic genius! Can’t wait for the American IT CROWD, even if it does suck compared to the original. (Why couldn’t they just bring back the ENTIRE cast, and have them speak in American accents? That’s wildly popular this season.)

If you like Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace and the IT Crowd, you should check The Mighty Boosh. It stars Noel Fielding (Richmond the goth from the IT Crowd) and Matt Barry and Richard Ayoade (both from Garth) share the same role, one in the pilot and one in the first series. The visuals are designed by Fielding and are pretty amazing. Plus, there are song and dance numbers that are really, really funny.